


End of the Hunt

by Quinnoid



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: F/F, How I hope TMA will end, M/M, Podcast Girls Week, Spoilers: it isn't Daisy who dies, ask to tag, tagging as character death even though it kinda isn't
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:15:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25139839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quinnoid/pseuds/Quinnoid
Summary: Self indulgent Daisy fic because I have the sneaking suspicion that she won't live through the end of this season...Prompt- Past/Future: The world returns to a new normal, and everyone has to live with what happened. Focused on Daisy.
Relationships: Basira Hussain/Alice "Daisy" Tonner, Georgie Barker/Melanie King, Martin Blackwood/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16
Collections: Podcast Girls Week





	End of the Hunt

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: this is more of a rambling word-vomit than a story. May or may not get cleaned up one day.

When the world ended, everything turned monochrome, and the only thing that pushed her forward was the unending desire to chase and chase and chase. It didn’t take long to realize she was also  _ being _ chased, but it didn’t matter. She chased her prey through domain after domain, barely pausing to look at the carnival ride, hardly stopping to let her broken, burnt, bloody paws - since when did she have paws? - heal, ignoring the cutting, sawing, scraping, crying of the garden, pointedly avoiding the laughing coming from the theater.

She almost caught them in the Vast, where she ran through empty plains for what would have been days. But the one chasing her caught her first. It shouldn’t have been possible. Hunters  _ aren’t  _ hunted. But Daisy had been too focused on the Chase to realize the Watching Hunter was so close behind her. 

She didn’t remember a lot after that. Just that she hurt and hurt and hurt and the Watching Hunter let her, until she didn’t.

And then the world unended.

It didn’t go back to normal. One can’t exactly erase the knowledge of 15 fear-gods reigning over the world with their fear-prophets. But it is as normal as life can get. She lives with Basira, in the safehouse in Scotland Jon and Martin had stayed at. Daisy takes a deep breath. It still smells faintly of Jon’s old-lady-books-and-tea scent and Martin’s antique-shop-ink-and-parchment scent. Two years ago, she would’ve been ready to kill them for daring to taint her safe place, but now, it’s almost as comforting as Basira’s indescribable-and-home-and-everything-I-need scent.

The Hunt still has it’s Everchase claws locked around her, but Jon is protecting her now. Jon is protecting all of them. Melanie and Georgie, Martin, and of course, Basira. There are others too, but Daisy doesn’t care who or what they are.

Daisy stretches and curls back into her spot on the couch, Basira’s favorite blanket wrapped tightly around her to block out the chill. Eight months in the coffin and an infinite amount of time running through hellscape after hellscape has left her small and weak, not the hard, lithe muscle she once had, despite Basira’s best efforts. Without the malnourished Hunt screaming in the back of her head, she’s been making progress, slow as it is. 

The front door opens, quietly. Basira’s home, and a part of Daisy wants to run from her and another part wants to pin her to the wall and another part wants to drag her to the couch and curl into her side and another terrifying part of her wants to chase and chase and  _ hunt _ . She sits frozen in her indecision as Basira walks down the hall. 

“Dais,” She says, and suddenly she’s sitting right in front of Daisy, eyes full of concern and love. “There you are.”

“Sira.” Daisy breathes. She’s taut and her muscles ache from strain they aren’t ready to bear. And then she’s shaking and crying and Basira’s holding her close like she always does. 

//

The Hunt never goes away, but it does get easier to ignore. Daisy gets stronger, starts to feel like herself again. Not her Hunt self, just herself. They move back to London at Jon’s request, and Daisy starts to work again, with Jon. He tells her he wishes for a bodyguard, and she accepts. Basira is concerned and afraid because she Knows the possibilities, but Daisy reassures her that Jon is doing good. Being good. They trust each other, and Basira just checks in with her to make sure the Hunt doesn’t color her grey again.

The Institute still exists, but Jonah is gone and Elias is long since dead. After taking way too long to decide on a name, Jon finally decided on Blackwood, and the institute moved to Cardiff. Everyone moves with him, even Georgie and Melanie. They also work at Blackwood, once they hear what Jon wants to do. Even Basira gives in, when police work falls short, and begins to help out.

Eventually, Blackwood is notorious, not for being a place to fear, but for being a place to let go of your fear. Jon wants to do good, to give the world back what he took from it so violently. So Blackwood, with the help of Martin reigning him in, becomes a place to heal from the Entities damage. Martin and Melanie help people heal their mental scars, Basira and Georgie help them physically, and Daisy protects Jon from the remaining Avatars and their lackeys. Jon oversees, only because he Knows all now, and his vision spreads.

//

She’s strong again, strong enough to carry Basira around, strong enough to carry all the groceries inside at once just to see her laugh, strong enough to hold her when the Knowing becomes too much. Jon does his best, but he’s only one being, and he doesn’t have the control Jonah did yet. 

She starts to run again, run marathons and cross country and sprints, chasing a high she can’t have anymore. But the chase itself is a high she’ll never lose, never get away from, and that’s okay. When it gets too much and the world turns grey and the blood pounds in her head with a frenzied beat, Basira is there to pull her back and kiss her until she can’t think or hear or feel anything other than Basira. And if it isn’t Basira, it’s Jon, turning his Gaze on the Hunt and reminding it that it doesn’t own her anymore. No one owns Daisy anymore, not even Jon with his All-Seeing and All-Knowing owns her. He makes that very clear when he tells her he wants to know if she wants to leave.

  
She always says no, and he doesn’t have to Know to know she isn’t lying. He’s content with just trusting, and when he isn’t Martin’s there to remind him. 

//

They’ve rebuilt the world, brick by brick, and the Entities hold no power. They’re still here, flitting around, but they’re starving away to nothing. Even Jon is starting to starve, but he’s accepted it. His last strengths go into making sure Blackwood is always a beacon of hope against the Fears. 

Daisy is sitting in the living room, reading when it happens. The last of the grey fogging the edges of her vision, grey she didn’t even realize still existed, fades away. For the first time in a long time, Daisy doesn’t feel the Hunt thrumming in the back of her mind, and she knows it’s because of Jon. Basira throws the bedroom door open, tearing down the hall to find Daisy sitting still, tears in her eyes. Basira starts crying too.

They don’t know how, but he’s done it. Somehow, beyond anything anyone thought possible, he’s banished them, for good. It will be hundreds, if not thousands of years before they come back. If they ever can. If Jon’s plans work out, Blackwood will be there, and the world will be well informed. 

A phone rings, and they know it’s Martin. Basira answers and puts it on speaker, and he cries. The cost of banishing the Entities was banishing Jon as well, and even though everyone had known from the beginning, no one was ready when the day came. He’d said goodbye, pulled Daisy aside a few weeks before, and cried and cried and cried while he told her all the things he had done and what he had left. Daisy already knew most of them, because Jon had never been subtle or good at lying, but to hear them said out loud hurt. He promised she would never feel the Hunt again, and she cursed him while pulling him into a long, tight hug. 

Martin is lonely, but he isn’t Lonely, and Jon is still with him, even if he isn’t in this world. Martin runs Blackwood now, and Daisy guards Martin now. Even without the grey of the Hunt, she’s stronger, keener, and faster than she thinks she should be. Basira says that the Entities have touched them, marked them, and they can never be fully human, but they’re all free from the fears. Sometimes Basira still Knows things on accident, and it scares her every time. She finds wherever Daisy is and holds her until the shaking stops and the Beholding goes away. Thankfully, it’s short.

//

They’ve grown old together, something Daisy doesn’t realize until she can’t run as long as she used to. Basira’s eyes crinkle when she smiles and she helps Melanie when Georgie isn’t there. Blackwood is thriving, they are thriving, and the world has become a happier place for it.

Sometimes Jon leaves them messages, slight blips in the banishment that fade almost as fast as they appear. He whispers through the planes, and when Daisy hears it, she lets the grey feelings she loved so much reach back to him, in the hopes it tells him she hears.


End file.
